Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to information processing systems, methods of controlling such systems, information processing apparatuses, web servers, and storage medium.
Description of the Related Art
A technique is known in which an information processing apparatus such as a PC displays, using a web browser installed in the information processing apparatus, an operating screen of a web application provided from a web server to which the information processing apparatus is connected over a network, and a user makes operations through the operating screen. See Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2011-123677, for example. To use the web application, the user obtains a license for using the web application from a provider of the web application. The operating screen of the web application is then displayed by the web browser of the user's information processing apparatus. As such, a system for the provider of the web application to verify whether or not the connection is being made from a user who has properly purchased a license is necessary. To realize such a system, for example, the operating screen of the web application requests the input of a username and a password, and the user is determined to have properly purchased a license in the case where the username and the password input through that screen match registered information.
Meanwhile, there are also web applications aimed at information processing apparatuses shared by many people, such as multifunction peripherals (MFPs) that have scanning functions, printing functions, and so on. In the case where many people share a single information processing apparatus, web application licenses are sometimes issued for the client terminal as a whole rather than for individual users.
Such license management is not only carried out for respective individual web applications; there are also systems in which license sales and management are collectively carried out by a representative for web applications developed by different web application developers. In such a case, a server having a web application makes an inquiry, on the basis of information from a web browser, to a license management server that manages licenses, and verifies whether or not the license has been properly purchased. There are also methods of verifying licenses by executing a JavaScript program or the like in a web browser and the JavaScript then communicating with the license management server.
It is necessary for a license management server that manages licenses in this manner to be running continually when license confirmation is required, or in other words, when a user attempts to use the web application. In other words, in the case where the license management server manages licenses for a plurality of web applications collectively, it is necessary for the server to run without stopping a service for confirming the license of individual users, which has been problematic in that costs for running the server increase.